FORUM & RESOURCES

A study just posted in a Chinese medical
journal and cited below confirms what I have observed in boys with Inattentive
ADD. They are less likely to engage in
sports, more likely to have problems with motor coordination and more likely to
have visual
processing issues. These problems
are bad enough but unfortunately, they also cause brain organization
problems.

Coordination difficulties are problematic
in sports but there is a growing body of evidence that suggest that children
that are not coordinated also have problems with brain development.

Optometrist believe that the brain,
through balance and coordination organizes itself. As the body develops and practices tasks such
as crawling and walking, a process called brain "lateralization"
occurs.

Lateralization eventually leads the brain
to establish a dominant side. Developing
a dominant side is important for brain organization and the importance goes WAY
beyond the ideas first introduced by psychologist who wrote about right sided
versus left sides brain dominance.

Through studies on brain mapping, we now
know that the entire brain works together to accomplish both artistic and
analytic tasks but that having a dominant side or lateralizing is important for
writing, reading and math as well as for sports.

It is through physical activity ,
specifically activities that "cross
the midline" or that use both the left side and right side of the body,
that the two sides or hemispheres of the brain learn to work together.

Coordinated children learn to use both
sides of their bodies together to do things like crawling, pushing, pulling or
walking. This coordinated body practice help the brains of these children
become better organized for doing the tasks that will later be required at
school and in life. Uncoordinated children get less practice at doing these
things and are slower to develop a lateralized and well organized brain.

What the Chinese study confirms is that
Inattentive boys (the study was performed on boys but likely applies to girls
as well) are less coordinated that their non-inattentive peers and also less
coordinated than their combined type peers.
So, are the brain organization problems in inattentive boys the result
of the motor and sensory coordination problems or vice versa? Well who knows. What we do know is that
treating the coordination, motor and sensory problems with exercise
and other
modalities can help treat the brain organization issues that ultimately
contribute to inattention.

Postural control
and sensory information integration abilities of boys with
two subtypes of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: a
case-control study.

ADHD boys
had a poorer static postural control ability and impaired function of
processing visual and vestibular information compared with the normal control.
Boys with ADHD-I showed particularly severe defect of static postural
control and vestibular function integrating conflict information than normal
boys. These deficits may be an important contributor to the clinical
presentation of ADHD children and their cognitive deficits.
Assessment and training of postural control function would be suggested during
the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD children.

Recently I have received
several questions from parents with young children with symptoms of:

Inattention

Disorganization

Procrastination

Plodding Work Pace

Lethargy

The parents of these
kids want to know if these symptoms are Inattentive ADD symptoms and they want
to know what to do. They often are
concerned about the “labeling” of their kids and this is a legitimate concern
and they are concerned about not acting on these issues as they fear that the
symptoms will only become more of an issue as their children age.

As an aside, I am always
heartened by the fact that 95% of the parents who write me, describe their
children as poor students but “delightful people”. I always ask parents if their children are
“good company” and they almost always say “yes”. I mention this because, at the end of the
day, a person who is “good company” has a lot more potential than a person who
is not. Excellent, A+ students, can be
obnoxious, arrogant and “bad company” and I like to point this out to parents
who are despairing about their children’s academic performance.

Anyway... back to the
topic. The above symptoms may or may not
be Inattentive ADD symptoms. It does not really matter as these children need
help. In children who are ten and
younger, the plan should be to help them establish life and academic skills
that will support them in years to come.
These skills include:

Regular Exercise

Healthy Diet Habits

Healthy Sleep Habits

Good Parent/Teacher Communication

Organizational Aids such as wall charts, Big
visible task calendars,

Appropriate Incentives

For older kids, the
support plan should include all the above plus:

Having a spare set of school books (a whole extra set) at
home to help eliminate the issues of not having the right books to do whatever
assignment is due.

Engaging the help of a high school student, paid minimum
wage, to be your child’s "homework helper". Communicating teachers
and asking that assignments be put online or available in such a way that you,
the Homework Helper and the student know what it due, when it is due and what
is required to complete the assignment.

To find
more of my suggestions, you can use the search bar in the top right hand corner
of my blog and search under the
terms "teacher" and "classroom". This will bring up posts with more
recommendations.